The Newfoundland Growlers got the winning goal from their latest acquisition, defenceman Anthony Cortese, — and against his former team, no less — as they downed the Reading Royals 3-1 in ECHL play in northeastern Pennsylvania Tuesday night.
Netminder Michael Garteig made 26 saves, while Sam Babintsev and Giorgio Estephan, the latter into an empty net, had the other goals for the Growlers, who moved to above .500 (4-3-0) early in their inaugural season and 2-1 on what will be an eight-game road trip.
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Cortese scored late in the second period to break a 1-1 deadlock created when the Royals’ Frank DiChaiara and Babintsev had exchanged power-play tallies earlier in the frame.
The Growlers added Cortese in a deal with the Royals on Monday. The 24-year-old native of suburban Montreal, who had played three seasons in the QMJHL and two more at Concordia University, is in his second ECHL season, after having split his rookie pro campaign between the Indy Fuel and Fort Wayne Comets. He joined Reading this fall but hadn’t played a game for the Royals before his trade to the Growlers.
He earned first-star honours in his Newfoundland debut, while Reading goalie Brandon Komm (27 saves) got the nod as second star. The third star was Garteig, making his sixth straight start between the pipes for the Growlers.
The Newfoundland side now heads to Brampton, Ont., where it will play the Beast in what will be a history-making two-game weekend series. Their games Saturday and Sunday against the Ottawa Senators affiliate will be the first-ever regular-season contests between Canadian-based ECHL teams.
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The trade for Cortese was among a number of roster moves for the Growlers early this week. The team also moved defenceman Alex Gudbranson, who had been hurt during the team’s inaugural home stand in St. John’s, from the reserve list to the injured reserve list. Taking Gudbranson’s place on the reserve list is forward Zach O’Brien, who was injured in the first game of the current road trip and is listed day-to-day. Coming off IR to join the active roster was forward Josh Kestner, who made his ECHL debut Tuesday. ECHL teams have 20-man active rosters, but dress 18 players — 16 skaters and two goalies — for games. They also have an official two-player reserve and can have an unlimited number of players on 14-day injured reserve … Forward Marcus Power of St. John’s was a late scratch after Tuesday’s game-day skate and is listed day-to-day. Taking Power’s place in the lineup was fellow Newfoundlander Scott Trask of Boavista… Growlers defenceman James Melindy got a fighting major and game misconduct for leaving the bench after an altercation following Babintsev’s second-period goal. Combined with a minor penalty to the Royals’ veteran rearguard Dan Milan, it left Newfoundland to successfully kill off three minutes of power-play time. Two minutes later, Cortese scored the game-winner … Estephan’s empty-netter was his team-leading fifth goal of the season …
Twitter: @telybrendan
